Chapter 9

Bayville High (Lunch)

Eli had waited for his sister after class so he could walk her to lunch. She still seemed to be adjusting to the students at Bayville seeing as how she kept eyeing anyone that passed them. As Eli examined her bruised face he frowned to himself. He could not help but feel a twinge of guilt in his gut. Maybe if he had walked her home then she would be perfectly fine. Then again, if he had walked her home then she most likely would not have used her powers and she would still be living at the vacation home.

His mind was filled with thoughts of their childhood together. Ellie was not always the guarded, on edge individual that she was now. There was a time where she would laugh about almost everything and she was practically fearless. After their parents betrayed them by treating them like experiment's rather than children, Ellie changed. She was no longer the happy little girl that Eli remembered her to be. Knowing this he should have listened to her when they had arrived in Bayville. Eli scolded himself on a daily basis for using his powers when Ellie had told him not to. She was only looking out for his well being and he turned around and did it anyway. It hurt his heart to think about it.

The anger and eagerness in her eyes the other day in the cafeteria frightened him. He was not afraid of Ellie per-say, but he was afraid that she was actually becoming the person that he hoped she was pretending to be. Eli still held out hope that one day Ellie would be the way that he remembered her. The real her. He was pulled from his thoughts when her hand touched his shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked, concern clear in her tone.

"Absolutely," Eli replied with a forced smile. They both took seats at the X-Men's regular table. Scott nodded to the both of them.

"Hey Scott," Eli said with a nod in return. He couldn't help but notice that the table was missing a few people today.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Well, Jean is with Duncan unfortunately," Scott started, catching Ellie's attention. "Bobby is catching up on homework in the library and Evan is out skateboarding."

"Did you say that Jean was with Duncan?" Ellie asked. Her brother eyed her curiously as Scott nodded.

"Duncan Matthews?" she asked.

"Yeah," Rogue added. "They are a couple you know." Ellie stiffened in her seat.

"Is there something wrong?" Eli asked his sister. Ellie shook her head from side to side.

She was not going to tell Eli that Duncan and his friends were the ones who attacked her the other day. Although Eli was a sweet and kind person she was unsure of what he could potentially do. Brothers tend to be very protective of their sisters but in the case of the Dingo twins it appeared to be the opposite way around. Ellie was always protecting her brother from potential harm which was a tiring task.

Ellie's attempt to keep the incident with Duncan a secret was about to be tested. Jean entered the cafeteria with an angry look on her face and Duncan was trailing behind her. As the two approached the table where the X-Men were sitting, Ellie forced herself to remain calm.

"Go ahead," Jean angrily said to Duncan. "Apologize to her." Duncan and Ellie locked eyes.

"Jean, what's going on?" Scott asked as he stood up from his seat.

"Why does he need to apologize to my sister?" Eli asked, confused.

"It's fine," Ellie told Jean calmly. "He doesn't need to apologize."

"Yes he does Ellie. What he did is unacceptable," Jean replied.

"What exactly did he do that was so unacceptable?" Eli asked.

"It's not a big deal," Ellie explained. "The other morning Duncan accidentally bumped into me in the hallway. I cut my ear on a locker, but I'm fine. No harm done and no hard feelings." Jean studied Ellie hard, knowing that she was referring to the wrong incident on purpose.

Ellie left her seat and pulled Jean away from the table. Duncan followed them, curious and confused about what was going on.

"Okay, I'll level with you," Ellie started. "I don't want Eli knowing about this. Duncan was in the wrong but I lost my temper as well. When it comes to deciding between a fight or flight response I don't always make the best choice."

"But it is not okay that he and his friends attacked you for no reason," Jean explained.

"He had a reason. I was the one who pushed him to fight with me. I could have walked away when he bumped into me in the hallway but I didn't. You know I could have easily walked away from that fight without anyone getting harmed. I was just too stubborn to do it." Duncan rubbed the back of his neck.

"It wasn't entirely your fault," he added. "I have a tendency to do things to impress my friends. I didn't plan to hurt you that bad, honest. I was just gonna shove you around a bit until you got the point." Ellie rolled her eyes.

"You're so immature Duncan. Look at her! She's just a young girl and she is a mess because you feel the need to impress your friends," Jean pointed out.

"Yeah, I know that Jean. Everything got a little too intense once those losers showed up though. We were going to leave but they decided to play heroes and I lost control."

"You're not the only one," Ellie told him. "I'm never going to like you, Duncan. So don't you think for one second that by giving me some half assed apology that everything will be fine between you and I. I will not be your friend. However, I will not acknowledge you or anything that you have done to me as long as you promise to do the same."

"Fine. I apologize," Duncan said as he extended his hand to Ellie. She pushed it away before nodding.

"I'm afraid that I don't understand," Jean said.

"You don't need to understand this Jean. You just need to keep it to yourself," Ellie told her before returning to her seat.

"Everything alright?" Eli asked. Ellie nodded and he believed her.

Jean took a seat next to Scott after giving him a smile to assure him that everything was fine. Duncan took off after the three had their discussion and Ellie was a bit more relaxed. Eli was oblivious to the truth, Duncan was going to leave her be, and nobody seemed to expect a thing. Ellie leaned back in her seat before her backpack was dropped onto the table in front of her. Her head snapped up to see Fred.

"You forgot this," he told her nervously as he looked around at the X-Men. Ellie smiled at him.

"Thank you Fred. Now I can actually take notes in class," she replied.

"Don't you have somewhere to be, Blob?" Scott asked unhappily. Fred narrowed his eyes at him.

"Whatever, I'm outta here." Ellie sent a glare toward Scott before going after Fred.

"Hey, thanks a lot for bringing it back to me Fred." The large boy shrugged.

"Could you do me a favor Fred?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Tell the boys to keep quiet about who attacked me yesterday."

"What? Why?"

"If you tell them and they agree to do that, I might decide to join the Brotherhood." Fred's eyes widened.

"Well, uh…sure I'll tell 'em."

"Thanks Fred." The bell to return to class rang and Ellie went to get her backpack.

Fred scratched his head, confused as to why Ellie wanted the Brotherhood to keep quiet about Duncan and his friends. Either way he told her that he would let the others know, so he made his way back to their table and did just that. Todd and Lance didn't seem to care and agreed to keep the secret, but Pietro seemed curious.

"I'm not agreeing to anything," he told his large housemate. "That girl already owes us one for saving her from getting pummeled. I'm not doing her any favors until she pays up."

"She said that she might think about joinin' the Brotherhood," Blob explained. Pietro perked up a bit.

"Is that so? Well then, I'll keep her secret for now I suppose." The four boys left their table and entered the busy hallway.

"You think Mystique would be cool with a chick livin' with us?" Todd asked.

"Aw she ain't comin' back Toad," Lance explained with a scrunched up nose. "If she was gonna come back she'd a done it by now."

"What if Ellie does join our team?" Blob asked.

"Then we are up by one and the X-Men are down by one. Now, excuse me while I go to class and think about how I'm going to convince her to join us." Pietro left his group of friends and the three boys looked to one another.

"You know, I'm not so sure about this," Toad said.

"Yeah me either. I don't think we should be dealing with the X-Men's recruits," Lance admitted.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Ellie's nice and all that but I don't think I like the way Pietro is blackmailing her."

"Right. We did decide to help her on our own so she doesn't really need to repay us," Lance added. The boys broke apart as the bell rang and Principal Kelly entered the hallway.

Although the boys were not completely on board with Pietro's plan to persuade one if not both of the Dingo twins to join their team, none of them were going to confront him about it. Lance was concerned about Kitty's reaction to the plan, Fred did not want to lose Ellie as a friend if the plan went awry, and Toad was just uncomfortable with the idea of living with a female. Pietro was the man in charge right now and that was the way that it was going to stay.

A/N: Hey there. I meant to post this last night but unfortunately I lost internet access right as I was getting ready to upload. Annoying I know. Thanks to everyone reviewing though! I hope this chapter clears up a few things and makes certain plot lines more understandable now. Also, I really don't hate Duncan as this chapter shows. I just think he's a show off. Again, thank you to everyone who is reviewing and thank you to everyone for reading!